The core role of the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) is to develop the international and tropical country domestic markets for verified sustainable tropical timber and wood products. The goal is to support development of tropical timber industries and the economic and social benefits they bring. In conjunction with that, it is to incentivise uptake of certified sustainable forest management and maintenance of the tropical forest for the environmental services it delivers, notably its contribution to combating climate change. Recently it has initiated a number of new projects and strategies to further its aims. Including growing its geographic reach.
The ATIBT has 170 direct members, mostly private sector businesses, but also including African and European professional bodies and institutions. Among these are the CIRAD sustainable agriculture organisation, University of Liège Gembloux research centre and NGOs including FSC and PEFC certification schemes. It also has country members; Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Republic of the Congo, where ATIBT has its African headquarters. Funding comes from members’ subscriptions and donors, including the EU, International Tropical Timber Organisation, and German development bank KfW.
Membership is now spread across 28 countries, and taking trade union and professional association members into account represents 550 companies with annual turnover of €2bn and employing 150,000.
ATIBT’s focus was previously on Francophone Central and West Africa; Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in recent years it has also formed links with Liberia, Nigeria, and Ghana.
It has been looking beyond Africa too and last year signed up its first members in Latin America.
One of these is Mil Madeiras Preciosas, which is based in Amazonas, Brazil, and is a subsidiary of Swiss-based Precious Wood Group, which was already an ATIBT member via its CEB operation in Gabon. The business says it was the first indigenous forest management company in Brazil to obtain FSC certification. Today it also holds PEFCaccredited Cerflor accreditation.
The second new signatory is Maderacre, which manages 220,000ha of forest in Madre de Dios, Peru. It has been FSC certified since 2007 and is also part of the Madre de Dios UN REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation) project, which supports generation of carbon bonds from forestry for use by other businesses to offset emissions.
“Growing ATIBT membership is important to increase our representativeness and recognition in the market,” said ATIBT managing director Benoît Jobbé-Duval. “Our objective is to be an association connected to all the tropical forest regions.”
ATIBT is also looking to strengthen ties in Asia. “We have very good connections with the Malaysian Timber Council and maintain regular contact with the Chinese Global Green Supply Chains initiative and the China Timber and Wood Products Distribution Association,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “We are now working on building connections with other Asian trade organisations. Our president Françoise Van de Ven travelled twice to Asia this year and renewed contact with Chinese organisations on a visit to Macao. I also attended the Global Legal and Sustainable Timber Forum in Macao with our director of strategy and innovation, Caroline Duhesme.”
A central role of the ATIBT today is also to communicate to export and tropical domestic consumers about the technical performance potential of sustainable tropical timber, plus the positive social, economic, and environmental benefits of using it. This is where its Fair&Precious (F&P) promotional campaign comes in. Its consumer and specifier-facing website features articles, images and films conveying everything from the workability, unique aesthetics, and durability of tropical wood to how certified sustainable forest management provides livelihoods, enhances social welfare, and supports forest maintenance.
“The fact that buying sustainably managed tropical wood helps to save forests is not very intuitive,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “There are other complementary strategies to develop, including conservation, but our central message is that certified sustainable timber production is also a key part of the solution to halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation.”
F&P partner companies must sign up to 10 commitments, including pledges to protect habitats, flora, and fauna and to operate ethically to ensure the welfare of workers and communities living in and around forests.
Last year a new initiative was launched to raise awareness and grow support for F&P in America. US-based Nathalie Bouville was appointed consultant, tasked with encouraging US organisations and companies to become partners.
“My role centres on formulating a growth strategy tailored to the US market, targeting tropical wood importers to introduce them to the value of F&P,” she said. “The aim is to cultivate a dynamic community integrated into the ATIBT/F&P ecosystem.”
She added that there is “increased pressure to green all business sectors in the US” and a growing requirement for environmental validation. “I can testify from communications with importers that sustainability will be top of their priority list into the future,” said Ms Bouville, now ATIBT head of communications.
ATIBT lobbies government too and its intervention was instrumental in tropical timber being used in building developments at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Initially it was barred.
“We had discussions with the organisers and the Paris mayor,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “The ban was a poor decision, potentially undermining trust in sustainable tropical timber.”
ATIBT has also been project leader in the development of the Congo basin regional Pan-African Forest Certification (PAFC) scheme. Bringing together the national PAFC bodies of Cameroon, The Republic of Congo and Gabon, it is the first regional certification scheme to be PEFC endorsed. Its backers say it should increase efficiency and cost effectiveness of certification, and by combining their resources help the countries’ certified timber and wood products achieve greater market impact.
ATIBT has also supported countries implementing Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreements (FLEGT VPAs) with the EU and UK, including in the development of timber legality assurance systems. FLEGT is now being superseded by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). FLEGT licences are accepted as proof of legality under the EUDR, but no longer grant exemption from further due diligence in the EU. With Ivory Coast in February signing a VPA, however, ATIBT sees the FLEGT programme retaining relevance.
“Signing of a VPA continues to have value as it represents real, in-depth work on forest governance on the ground in producer countries,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.
Strengthening tropical timber industry training to underpin development of the value-added wood products sector is another ATIBT core activity. It is partnered with the central African training organisation ADEFAC to train the trainers, along with the Central African Network of Forestry and Environmental Training Institutions (RIFFEAC).
“Without trained personnel, it is difficult to industrialise the sector, and it deters investment if there is no one trained to operate it,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.
To support market development of further processed tropical timber products, ATIBT is also involved in the Dryades project. Backed by the forestry and timber companies, Interholco, Pallisco, Precious Woods, and Rougier, it has undertaken life cycle analysis of a range of principal tropical timber products. This is for use by customers to develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and, for the French market, Environmental and Health Declaration documents (FDES). The LCA results are available for download from the F&P website.
Also ongoing is ATIBT’s effort to achieve increased market penetration of lesser-known certified tropical species (LKTS) to reduce supply stress on more popular varieties and make certified sustainable forest management more economically viable.
“We are working with FSC Denmark and CIRAD, which has already produced technical data on many LKTS,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.
Formalising tropical countries’ domestic markets is also seen as key in “providing leverage to encourage legality and sustainable management”.
“These markets are growing, driven particularly by the emergence of more affluent middle classes. But much of their timber is from what we’d describe as the informal rather than certified sustainable sector,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “We have two major EU-financed initiatives in this area in Cameroon and the RoC.”
Also on the ATIBT agenda is the EU Deforestation Regulation, which requires businesses to undertake due diligence to ensure timber and wood products placed on the EU market or exported from it are deforestation-free and legal. ATIBT is keeping members informed on its requirements but does not see it as a major threat to them.
“The certified tropical timber sector is well-positioned to tackle the challenge,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “Our operator and importer members have had to adhere to due diligence practices for over a decade under the EU Timber Regulation. Moreover FSC and PEFC/PAFC certifications have rigorous criteria going beyond forestry aspects alone, including workers’ rights, environmental conservation, and biodiversity protection.”
ATIBT does acknowledge “certain issues with specific provisions of the EUDR and gaps in implementation” but says it will continue to monitor its progress during the preparatory phase leading up to implementation, now pushed back to December 2025.
“Our annual forum in October in Antwerp also aimed to help members with EUDR implementation,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.
Looking forward, with environmental concern driving both growth in the consumption of timber due to its carbon credentials, but also demand for sustainability validation, ATIBT says the significance of its work can only increase.
“We want to see more countries adopting sustainable procurement policies in the fight against deforestation and the value of certified sustainable tropical timber gaining recognition in consumer markets internationally,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval. “That includes in producer countries, which are increasingly important consumers.”
